Zaidi cancels Riyadh trip after US-Saudi strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq
The move comes after Riyadh joined Washington in targeting Iraqi militias, dealing a setback to Baghdad's efforts to strengthen ties with Gulf Arab states.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has canceled an official trip to Saudi Arabia that was scheduled for Thursday, following an unprecedented escalation that saw Saudi Arabia join the United States in coordinated airstrikes targeting Iran-backed militias across several Iraqi provinces, including Baghdad.
The Saudi Ministry of Defense said the strikes were in response to repeated drone assaults on Saudi Arabia's eastern oil facilities over the past few days that Riyadh said were carried out by Iraq-based militias that have been targeting the kingdom since the Iran conflict began on Feb. 28. Saudi Arabia's Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman is expected to arrive in Washington on Thursday, diplomatic sources have confirmed to al-Monitor. However, the Pentagon has not confirmed any meetings with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. His office did not return a request for comment by publication time.
The cancellation, confirmed by two regional officials and a Western diplomat, had not yet been formally announced by either Saudi Arabia or Iraq as of the time this article was published. Reuters reported that the decision to scrap the visit was driven by an unscheduled meeting of Iraq's National Security Council in the wake of the US-Saudi strikes and the "rapidly evolving" security situation.
The Popular Mobilization Forces, as the militias are formally known, said the strikes had killed at least 20 of its members and wounded 32 others and that the death toll could rise as the full extent of the damage continued to be assessed. It called the US-Saudi strikes "a highly dangerous escalation" and a violation of Iraq's sovereignty.
The cancellation of the trip has dealt a blow to Zaidi's efforts to reorient Iraq away from Tehran's grip and toward closer diplomatic and commercial ties with the United States and the Gulf states. His first foreign trip since becoming prime minister in May was to the United States, where he was hosted by President Donald Trump amid much fanfare. Riyadh would have been his fourth stop after visits to Iran last week and to Turkey on Tuesday.
Zaidi has pledged to demobilize the PMF, which according to Trump administration officials operates outside the government's command and often in coordination with Iran. Coming just days before Zaidi's planned trip to the kingdom, the drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's energy infrastructure underscored the limits of his power and the immense challenges facing Iraq's premier as his country has emerged as a new battleground in the US-Iran conflict. In a further twist that could place Zaidi at odds with the PMF and Tehran, Trump told Fox News that the US-Saudi attacks against the militias had been coordinated with the Iraqi government. He called the groups and Iran a "cancer on the world."
In a related development, the Houthi rebels in Yemen said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of their ongoing hostilities with Saudi Arabia.
